Close Your Eyes, The World's Still There
by a quirky little tune
Summary: Sasuke, out of past love and respect for his brother, has tried to ignore Itachi's rather unstable mind. But when a blond boy his age appears in his basement, apparently being held prisoner by Itachi, well, even Sasuke can't play blind anymore. SasuNaru
1. one

**Close Your Eyes, The World's Still There**

**chapter one**

by _a quirky little tune_

* * *

A young man on the hospital bed shifted in his light sleep, pale features twisting slightly in pain. His brown eyes slowly blinked as he woke, a slim hand reaching up to brush his long hair off his face. He tried to sit up and moaned softly as his ribs harshly protested against the movement. He smiled a derisive smile and wondered absently, "Perhaps this is what it feels like to be run over by a bus…"

He turned to the right and found himself looking outside, the sun heavy and low in the reddish sky. The man tried to remember how he had ended up in a hospital bed, but felt no particular rush to figure things out. He sat contentedly until a smooth voice broke into his thoughts.

"Not quite. It was more along the lines of a flashy red Audi going 30 over the speed limit."

The injured young man perked slightly at the wry words and his eyes widened with surprise as they landed on a dark form in the opposite corner of his room.

"Sasuke-kun?" he asked with a tone of slight disbelief.

Uchiha Sasuke sighed as he stood, packing away the textbooks he had been skimming. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and moved closer to his friend's bedside, pinning the young man with a dark, annoyed glare. He paused, as if considering his next words.

"You… are a moron, Haku."

The long-haired brunet smiled gently at this, glancing behind the aggravated Uchiha at a clear vase filled with various flowers. Each bloom boasted a different pastel shade, the petals blending in together to make a calm, colorful collage.

"Did you bring me flowers, Sasuke-kun?" Haku asked, pleased. "Thank you, they're very lovely!"

Sasuke merely scowled and ignored Haku's attempt to change the subject. "Do you know how worried I felt, receiving a call from the hospital in school? All I could get from the person on the phone was that you were involved in a car accident and had yet to regain consciousness."

"I'm sorry," Haku said sincerely, actually quite touched by the angry concern.

The apology only served to deepen Sasuke's frown. "You're sorry?" He sighed tiredly, but his dark eyes glittered something fierce. "Do you remember, Haku? The last time we ended up in the hospital due to a similar situation, I recall you apologizing then as well. I find it hard to take your "I'm sorry's" seriously anymore because, if you were truly sorry, you would not be jumping in front of gaudy sports cars on your way to school, would you?"

"Mm," the brunet sounded, his lips still curved in a soft smile at Sasuke's mini rant. The accident came back to him easily now and, as the details filled his mind, Haku asked, "How is the little boy?"

"I'm serious, Haku, no more acts of martyrdom. One day, you're not going to bounce back miraculously; I wish you would stop throwing your life away so easily." Sasuke's eye twitched slightly as his words seemed to be basically ignored. He bit out, "And the kid is fine; the doctor says he got away with some minor scrapes on his hands and knees."

"Well, that's a relief," Haku said, relaxing fully. "I'm glad he wasn't seriously injured."

"This," Sasuke ground out, "is exactly what I'm talking about. It's a fantastic thing for you to save a little boy from getting run over, but not at the risk of your own life. You have to stop acting so impulsively – are you listening to me, Haku?"

Haku had turned to face the window again during Sasuke's mini rant. He pointed at something in the sky with a thin finger. "Oh, look, there's a sparrow!"

"Haku!"

The brunet faced his friend, amused. "Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

Feeling as though all his anger had simply vanished, Sasuke pulled over the chair he had used previously and fell into it in defeat. Haku could be incredibly stubborn when he wanted to be and the Uchiha knew he would never be able to win against his best friend in this sort of argument. "Just… try to be more careful, alright?"

Haku felt warmth blossom in his chest from Sasuke's worry. Having been best friends with the Uchiha since middle school, he had long since learned to take Sasuke's standoffish persona in stride and could easily read what the man truly felt and meant from his curt words. Still, it was always nice when Sasuke showed his real emotions on his own.

"I'll try," Haku promised. He tilted his head slightly, evaluating the other man with a curious expression on his face. "But I do wonder, Sasuke-kun… if there isn't any one out there that you would risk your life for."

Sasuke snorted. "Well, I'm definitely not going to go out there to risk my neck to save an imbecilic little boy from his own overwhelming stupidity."

Chuckling, Haku had to agree. "No, I'd imagine not. But random little children aside, isn't there any special person that you would die for?"

Pausing to think for one brief second, Sasuke shook his head. "Not really." He cast a vaguely uncomfortable look in Haku's direction. "No offense."

"None taken," Haku assured, smiling. "That's just how you are. Still, I can't help but think it's rather sad that you don't have a precious person in your life yet."

"Do you?"

"Well… no, I suppose I don't," Haku replied truthfully, adding an amused, "No offense." Sasuke waved it off easily and his lips quirked upwards in what could be called a smile. Haku laughed softly, his earnest brown eyes traveling back to the window as he continued, "But I am searching and I'm sure I'll find them someday. I'm in no rush."

"And if you die before you find them because you decide to pull another moronic, self-sacrificing stunt like you did today?" Sasuke pressed darkly. Flashes of his initial panic and worry when he first received the call appeared in his mind and he vaguely felt the urge to hit something. He had hoped, however vainly, that his friend would see the danger and promise to stay out of other peoples' business.

Unfortunately, true to form, no such promises were made; instead, Haku very pointedly waved to his vase of flowers, innocently commenting, "Those are very beautiful, Sasuke-kun, what kind of flower did you say they were again?"

"You," Sasuke growled unhappily, "are one of the most infuriating idiots I have ever met."

"And you've met quite a few," Haku mused, agreeing, his smile growing.

Sasuke sighed with defeat, resisting the urge to throw his hands up in the air and scream. He brushed his ink-black hair off his pale face and rubbed his eyes carefully as he fully slumped in his seat.

Haku watched his best friend affectionately, enjoying their onesided banter. His ribs throbbed painfully and his small hand moved to rest gently on his side; his left knee also felt hot and swollen and Haku flinched the tiniest bit as he tried to stretch his legs out.

Sasuke's eyes were sharply observing his movements. "You have a small concussion, a twisted knee, two broken ribs, and bruises all over. They're going to want to keep you here for a few more days at the very least."

Haku nodded absently and seemed pleased with the diagnosis. "I was very lucky."

Biting his tongue, Sasuke said nothing, turning his head so as not to glare. Haku muffled a soft chuckle. The silence between them was familiar and comforting, neither feeling the awkward urge to break it.

For the first time, Haku's eyes traveled to the plain clock on his nightstand. "It's rather late, Sasuke, and I'm sure you've been here for quite a while—" the Uchiha snorted quietly at this, but Haku knew he hadn't left Haku's bedside since his arrival, "—perhaps you should head home?"

Sasuke read the clock himself and rose from his chair. His lips pursed together thinly and he nodded in agreement. "I can't wait to get home and sleep," he admitted quietly, grabbing his schoolbag.

"Why are you so tired today?" Haku asked curiously, feeling rather sleepy himself.

"History and English exams today," the Uchiha heir explained shortly, eyes narrowing in sheer aggravation.

"Mmm," Haku worried his bottom lip and brushed some of his long hair from his mouth. "I had completely forgotten all about those. I'm assuming then, from your exhaustion, that they were extremely difficult?"

Sasuke twirled around sharply on his heel, effectively hiding the fierce frown Haku knew would be on his pale face. "The tests were fine. Two of the easiest tests I've taken all year."

"But…?" his best friend encouraged gently.

"But," Sasuke snarled, "our classmates are the most idiotic, worthless people to exist. All day, the whole senior class would not leave me alone. Asking for last minute advice. Pestering me for answers, study tips, the exact questions from the exams. They even found me at lunch so now I'll have to find a different spot to eat!"

Haku kept himself from laughing aloud. "Oh dear," he said as sympathetically as he could. Lunch period was Sasuke's personal time during the school day where he retreated to an abandoned classroom on the higher levels to escape their classmates. Even Haku rarely knew where Sasuke was eating (or brooding, or perhaps both at the same time – Sasuke really was a fantastic multi-tasker).

"Is it honestly so hard to just study and work on your own?" the Uchiha muttered unhappily to himself as he pulled open the door.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke stopped, door knob in hand, and turned his head the slightest bit to glance at his best friend.

Haku smiled gently, his hands folded neatly in his lap. "Thank you," he said, his eyes emanating a happy warmth that expressed more gratitude than his usual patented smile.

Sasuke snorted, as if it were ridiculous that Haku should thank him, but Haku caught a glimpse of a fleeting similar softness in the Uchiha's eyes in return.

A few minutes after his best friend had left, as Haku was slowly trying to slip back into a lying position without aggravating his beaten up body, the door cracked open again. Sasuke crossed his arms, standing in the doorway with his foot acting as a stopper. "By the way," he spoke sternly, "I don't care what your wishes are this time, but I _will_ be pressing charges against the asshole who put you in that bed."

Haku made a face, as if tasting something bad in his mouth, before smoothing over the look with a rather neutral expression. "We'll see," he replied softly, smiling as if indulging in a child's ridiculous whim.

Snarling slightly, Sasuke nodded curtly, knowing that this was an argument best fought another day. Both of them were exhausted, it was starting to get dark out, Sasuke had a brother to get home to…

"Goodnight, Haku," he finally offered before leaving the room. At the soft click of the door falling back into place, Haku laughed peacefully, congratulating himself -- not for the first time -- for finding such a wonderful friend.

"Goodnight, Sasuke."

* * *

Sasuke entered his house with mixed feelings of utter dread and sheer relief. He removed his shoes with a quiet sigh, leaving them neatly by the door, before shuffling into the massive kitchen that seemed to mock him with its echoing emptiness.

Images of two small boys cooking breakfast together, one measuring out the flour precisely and the other carefully breaking an egg with small hands, tickled his mind but he tiredly brushed them back into the corner of his mind. A quick examination of the (lack of) possible dinner options had Sasuke picking up a huge green apple, the noisiest of all fruits. He took a few bites and, as the crunching noises filled the room, the kitchen suddenly did not seem as haunted.

He lounged around the counter for a good ten minutes, savoring his 'dinner' slowly, relishing the slightly bitter taste that only the green apples could offer, before finally facing the inevitable. He threw away the core, grabbed his school bag, and reluctantly climbed the stairs. When he reached the second floor landing, Sasuke paused, eyes straying subconsciously to the plain double doors situated at the very end of the East Wing. They seemed suspiciously ordinary and innocent, but Sasuke unfortunately knew better. Behind those simple oak doors rested the greatest kept secret of Uchiha manor. Behind those old bare doors lived the very bane of Uchiha Sasuke's existence.

Behind those smooth wooden doors lay the Past in human form, shattered and broken and bloodied and so very, very convoluted.

And it was all Sasuke's fault.

Shaking his head to get rid of such debilitating and frankly overly dramatic thoughts, Sasuke sighed deeply, irritated with himself for his uncharacteristically morbid attitude this evening. The whole accident with Haku must have shaken him up much worse than he had originally thought. Scoffing aloud, the raven-haired boy resolutely walked in the opposite direction of the East Wing, putting it and all thoughts concerning it out of his mind.

He entered his own large bedroom, tossing his school bag off to the corner and quickly removing the school uniform jacket. Glancing quickly at his clock, Sasuke reasoned that if he took a small nap now, he could wake up again at eleven or so to complete the little homework he had been assigned – those two exams had been good for something, apparently. The Uchiha had never before felt so compelled to just _sleep_ before and this compulsion, coupled with his horrible day and the lack of substantial assignments due tomorrow, made his body practically sing as he pulled back his dark blue duvet cover and readied himself for nap time.

It was like this, sitting on the edge of his bed, eyes nearly closing on their own accord, mind practically begging for sleep, fingers nimbly unknotting his uniform's tie, that Uchiha Sasuke finally heard the screams.

He would never forget this night.

* * *

_I hope this provides to be an interesting beginning to Close Your Eyes. I understand that I have other stories left unfinished, and I may seem to be making a lot of excuses, but they are all on break for very good reasons... mostly. _

_Please provide feedback and comments; I love hearing from you all and I've been dreaming about this story for months. Months, I tell you. _

_Thanks for tuning in! _

**a quirky little tune**


	2. two

**Close Your Eyes, The World's Still There**

**chapter two**

by_ a quirky little tune_

* * *

Sasuke's fingers limply froze where they were, his tie hanging loosely around his neck, his broad shoulders rigid. The entirety of his body, which had just been begging for sleep a mere minute ago, suddenly became alert, his muscles tightening unnoticeably as he subconsciously reacted to the… whatever the hell that had been.

Warily, as if his own actions would bring about the horrible noise once again, Sasuke finished unknotting his tie, throwing it carelessly off to the side. The silence of the room now seemed almost unnatural, almost foreboding, and Sasuke cursed to himself as unwarranted feelings of apprehension arose in his chest without his permission.

He violently grabbed his duvet cover and sheets in a tight fist and wrenched them free from his bed. This was utterly absurd, he thought as he slid easily into his bed, trying hard to suppress his shot nerves.

Screaming. Screaming, in the Uchiha Manor. Seriously? What was this, some sort of crappy, B-rated horror film? The raven-haired male sneered slightly as he rested his head against a pristine white pillow. He brought slightly unsteady hands to cover his eyes, feeling exhaustion sweep heavily over his mind, fighting against the tension pulsating through his body.

Ridiculous. There was no screaming. Because if there had been screaming, that would mean a lot of different things, things that Sasuke wasn't sure he could deal with. It meant that there was someone else in his house. It meant that that stranger was undergoing pain (and really, no other sort of situation would produce such a loud, hoarse scream… in theory). It meant that someone had to be inflicting that pain on said stranger. Someone other than Sasuke.

No, Sasuke could not possibly deal with something like that. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Almost against his will, Sasuke strained his ears, as if to give his imagination the reluctant benefit of the doubt; a full three minutes passed. He heard nothing except for the slight quiver in his breathing. God, he must be more tired than he originally thought – it had probably just been a figment of his own imagination. After all, his imagination used to play countless of cruel tricks on him as a child, owning to the fact that kid-Sasuke had been so small and sad and lonely and the manor so big and empty and hollow.

Sasuke frowned distastefully. This was not the time to take a pity journey down memory lane. He had just had one of the longest fucking days of his life (fuck, he still had to argue with Haku about the damn lawsuit) and he deserved the right to relax in his own bedroom.

Sheer stubbornness kicked in. He forced his eyes shut and, with one last demand that his mind just _stop fucking thinking_, he uneasily drifted off into a light oblivion.

"_Will you play cards with me, Itachi-nii-sama?"_

_Pause. "What kind of cards?"_

"_Hm… is… 'Go Fish' okay?"_

_Small sigh. "'Go Fish' again, huh? Should have guessed." Chuckle. "Alright, Sasuke, shall we play a few rounds then?"_

_..._

"_Aniki, why does otou-sama never hug me anymore?"_

_Frown. _"… _otou-sama is just very stressed and frustrated these days with his work. Also, you're growing older – surely you're not a little baby that always needs to be held anymore, are you Sasuke?"_

"_No way! I'm a big boy – I'm turning six in a couple of weeks!"_

"_Well then, as a big boy, just keep in mind that otou-sama doesn't need to hug you to prove he loves you. Remember when you were sick last month and otou-sama made you those banana pancakes for breakfast?"_

"_Yes…"_

"_He made them specially, just for you, and was even a little late to work that day. See, Sasuke? As you grow older, the signs of love may not be as obvious as a hug or a piggy-back ride, but they're still present if you look hard enough."_

"_I think I get it now… thank you, aniki."_

_..._

"_Aniki… aniki… w-why did this h-happen?"_

_Silence._

"_Aniki, tell me! Tell me why this happened! Tell me, you… you… you big jerk! W-wh-why them? Why US?!"_

_Silence._

_Quick breathing. "Tell me, Itachi, please, I don't understand and you're the only one I've got left and I need to know, need you to tell me—"_

_Murmuring. "Quiet."_

"… _W-what?"_

"_QUIET."_

_..._

"_Tell me straight … going on lately? You've been disappearing into the basement for … at a time during all parts of the day."_

"_Hm? Really?"_

"_You are infuriating … know as well as I do … the third time today."_

"_Oh, I … not know I … being investigated."_

"_You're not being investigated; cut … crap. Up until recently, you … room, the kitchen, and the master bedroom – this change of pace… curious."_

"_You needn't worry about it, Sasuke… doesn't concern you."_

_Growl. "The hell it doesn't. You… a fool?"_

_Smirk. "If I were you," deliberate pause, "I … before you find yourself in over your head."_

"… _the fuck is that supposed to mean? It is … to believe –"_

_Pause. Swallow. "Why… blood on … sleeve, _**Itachi**_?"_

Consciousness slowly and lazily drifted back to Sasuke, bit by bit, piece by piece. The strange solemnity following the hazy images of his dream made him frown as he pulled himself upright. He always dreamt lucidly and in great detail, only for said details to become blurry and indistinct by the time he fully woke up. Tonight, however, he was certain that he had been dreaming of his family. No other memories made his head ache so hollowly as memories of the old days did.

Tossing the covers off his overheated body, he glanced at the clock and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose to coax the headache away. Eleven twenty-two. Almost two and a half hours of sleep and he still felt like shit. Sasuke growled to himself.

It took him another full minute to persuade his body to leave his bed completely. He retrieved his school bag and withdrew the books he needed for his assignments; he sat himself in his wooden desk chair on the opposite side of the room and his body insistently called out for the softness of his mattress once again.

Sasuke ignored it and flipped his Biology textbook – dry and unnecessarily wordy as it was – to the correct chapter. He got as far as the section concerning RNA and DNA before his headache worsened and his stomach protested against the mere lousy apple it had been fed for dinner.

Quickly, in the privacy of his own room, Sasuke let his shoulders hunch and his pale hand run through his dark hair in a show of weariness. He sighed, letting that one breath rattle his frame entirely, before straightening his back once more and resuming his stoic expression. He just didn't have the time or the luxury to be tired anymore.

Tired from lack of sleep or tired from life, it didn't matter. Uchiha Sasuke could just not afford it.

I'll go down and get something else to eat, he decided firmly, then come back up and work for another hour on Biology. After that, Calculus and Psychology. For a split second, he wondered idly what it would be like to procrastinate, to attempt to finish his work during the school day as many of his peers did. He knew that many of the students would be doing so tonight, as the homework was unusually light and easy. They would slack off, celebrate the end of exams, consciously or subconsciously shove their work off to the side and forget about it. He wondered what would it be like if he lived like that.

The very idea immediately lost its appeal and struck him as humorous. Why let yourself slip when you were clearly the best? Why stay idle in your growth when you could surpass everyone around you? How could his classmates settle for mediocrity, for ignorance?

Sometimes, Sasuke just didn't understand people.

Stretching as he stood away from his desk, the raven-haired boy made his way out into the hallway. His footsteps were near completely silent and it almost felt as if his own existence was evaporating into the void that was the silence of Uchiha Manor at night. Of course, the house was quiet at _all_ times of the day, having had no servants or butlers attending to it since… since… a very long time ago. Even so, the manor still seemed to shift into something else during the evening, something indefinable; a horrible sense of coldness always invaded the building (for he could not call it a home, not really), flooding the halls and filling the rooms until the words that could never be said almost seemed to scream in the air.

Sasuke reached the stairwell and froze, all morbid thoughts put on pause as he spotted the dark figure dwelling at the bottom.

"Itachi…" he murmured, the name tasting particularly awful on his tongue. He suddenly felt sick and tired and anxious all at once. When had the sight of his brother stopped giving him feelings of warmth and security? When had those sensations turned into dread and something resembling fear (Uchiha's were not afraid, never terrified – Sasuke wondered how long he could keep lying to himself)? He forced his mouth to open once more. "What are you doing up?"

His elder brother slowly climbed the stairs, one by one. A vague wisp of a smirk was plastered on his face, revealing the presence of someone not fully _there_. "I was just taking a midnight walk, little brother."

Sasuke's mind went into overdrive. That had been the most blatant lie he had ever heard; Itachi didn't even seem to mind that he was caught. It almost felt as if he were mocking Sasuke, seeing Sasuke as powerless over him. Pushing his anger aside, Sasuke continued thinking. Itachi never left his room unless it was to go to the kitchen or to the basement – and Sasuke was willing to bet an unholy amount money that Itachi hadn't just ventured downstairs to get an evening snack before going to bed. Call it a gut instinct (or common sense).

That meant he had been in the basement again, doing God-knows-what down there. Unbidden, the screams that had so badly startled Sasuke earlier that night came rushing to the forefront of his mind.

As did the memory of the last time he had confronted Itachi about his basement activities.

"_You needn't worry about it, Sasuke. The matter doesn't concern you."_

_Growl. "The hell it doesn't. You think me a fool?"_

_Smirk. "If I were you," deliberate pause, "I would drop this line of questioning before you find yourself in over your head."_

"_What the fuck is that supposed to mean? It is moronic for you to believe –"_

_Pause. Swallow. "Why… why is there blood on your sleeve, _**Itachi**_?"_

Fuck. _Fuck_. No, no, no way. This couldn't be possible. The screams had just been a figment of his imagination – some cruel trick his brain had come up with to mess with his sleep deprived psyche.

But the pieces reluctantly slid into place.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and gave his brother a discreet, cursory look-over. There was no blood on his shirt, but his sleeves were rolled up tight to his elbow, as if to hide the evidence.

It didn't truly matter at this point, Sasuke had to admit, any evidence he found would just point to what his mind had been trying to tell him all night. Truthfully, Sasuke found that he was not so much searching for evidence to prove guilt as he was searching for evidence that would prove him wrong. Anything… anything to tell him that his assumptions were baseless pieces of trash.

"You were in the basement again, weren't you?" he asked, mouth dry but voice strong. He stuffed all the raging emotions deep inside him and let a calm expression of mild disinterest take over his sharp features.

Itachi's brown eyes focused a bit more and the smirk become more prominent. "Perhaps."

Sasuke snorted. "There's no perhaps about it, aniki, I know you weren't just getting some warm milk to stave away the nightmares."

"Clever, little brother," the older Uchiha said blankly, "but I tire of your inane babble. This conversation is over."

Itachi began walking past him, but Sasuke grabbed him tightly by the wrist, an almost inhumane burning sensation growing in his stomach. "What is down there, Itachi?" he asked, his voice an icy contrast to the fire he felt inside. "What the hell have you done?"

He moved so quickly, Sasuke barely had time to register the movement. In a moment, Itachi had his younger brother pinned to the wood banister, eyes radiating a certain kind of madness while the rest of his face imitated stone.

"Do not," he said in a low, low voice as he applied more pressure, "go down there. You will drop this matter at once or you will find yourself very regretful that you did not heed your brother's warning."

Despite the painful amount of strength that Itachi was exerting on his chest, Sasuke smirked the Uchiha smirk. "I didn't know you cared so much about me as to give me a warning, aniki… unless, of course, that wasn't a warning and you were, perhaps… threatening me?"

Itachi smiled with all his teeth. "I just want what's best for my baby brother." He took a step back and the madness receded from his eyes, though not completely. Never completely.

"I see," Sasuke said quietly, thoughtfully, "I see." He turned to continue his journey downstairs. He made it down three steps before he finally felt the burning gaze of Itachi disappear. Food forgotten and his stomach be damned, Sasuke turned all his attention to the curious encounter he had just had.

Itachi had never openly threatened him before, not like tonight. Whatever he was doing in that basement had to be pretty awful, Sasuke thought casually, knowing that when all this was over he would probably just fall apart completely. His thoughts shifted away from the notion of his impending break down and he swerved to the left where he normally would have made a right to enter the kitchen.

The basement door was not even placed at the end of the hallway; it was located between a hall closet and a guestroom on the right wall and could easily have been mistaken for any of the other rooms. Sasuke hesitated in front of it. He did not want to know what he would find behind the seemingly innocent slab of wood.

He did not want to, but he knew he had to.

Brushing off his own anxiousness, he grasped the doorknob and pulled before his nerves failed him. The last time he had been down here… the things he had seen… the things he had forced himself to forget…

The room smelling of antiseptic and chemicals; metal instruments strewn all over the desks; cages, small cages, all lined up against the wall; blood soaking the lab table.

Itachi apparently had a lovely penchant for illegal and inhumane animal testing. Sasuke had had to see it for himself before he could even begin to wrap his head around the concept; the last experience had opened his eyes to a different side of Itachi that he had never expected to exist.

No. No, that was atually a lie. Sasuke _had_ expected it, somewhere deep inside his mind, but he had refused to see it, had kept himself blind for as long as he could. Because that's what brothers do, isn't it? Keep each other safe, look the other way, always accept the other. Even when you hate your brother and pity him from the bottom of your core, even when you know he's far gone and that the pieces that used to be your brother were long lost in that empty shell -- that's what you're supposed to do.

Isn't it?

Sasuke flipped on the light switch and watched as the faulty light bulbs flickered feebly to life. He took the steps one at a time at a brisk pace, simultaneously wanting this over with and wanting to take his time. This would change his life, he knew it (later, he would think back on how dramatic he had been at this very moment, but would never be able to completely scoff at his train of thought).

He surveyed the main room, trying to ignore his own brain as it compared the position of the lab tables to how they were situated the last time. His sharp gaze stopped on a large cage barely visible from the small back room, the somewhat closed door almost obscuring it completely.

He walked in, paused. Tried to comprehend what it was that he was seeing, couldn't. Froze. Sound of something fragile breaking into a million pieces – probably his mind. Or the beaker that had been on the table he just collapsed against. Numb. He couldn't feel a damn thing.

"What have you done, Itachi?" he whispered hoarsely, uncharacteristically thinking aloud as his whole brain overloaded.

For in the corner of that cage, the lean figure huddled up in a small ball with a chain around his ankle and his street clothes torn was no animal. It was a boy.

A human boy. A human boy with blond hair and tan skin and a shirt with a smart-ass phrase and beat up converses and a personality and a life and a heart.

Sasuke could not look away.

"_What have you_ **done**_, Itachi_?"

* * *

**Sorry for the delay, all, but I kind of have a lot on my plate. Three subject tests, college applications (all those essays), three AP classes, several clubs to manage, a rambunctious puppy to take care of (not that this last one is too much of a chore, but still)... I have virtually no time and stayed up until quarter to three in the morning to finish this for you.**

**Eventually, I shall go back and fix up their confrontation. Because it sucks and it came no where near to the level I wanted it to be. Itachi acted a bit too hastily for my liking and I felt I didn't explain why he let Sasuke go so easily as well as I should have.**

**At any rate, if you think these two are OOC, then, well... I'm doing something right (unless they are TOTALLY off the mark, then I'm failing). Their core personalities should be the same, but the environment and time in which they were raised differ from their canon counterparts and that makes a HUGE difference. If he grew up in our time, Sasuke would still be an uptight bastard, but something like a mentally unstable brother would freak the shit out of him. The more important aspect of his personality, I believe, is how he hides the fact that he's afraid, not that he IS afraid. Do you get my meaning?**

**Anyway, it's quarter to three, I'm exhausted, I need to get up in basically two and a half hours, and I have to take a Psych test. Please leave me some feedback for all the toil I went through to get this chapter to y'all. Goodnight (morning?) and thanks for tuning in!**

_a quirky little tune_


End file.
